by Heather Lyon

Created on: May 08, 2009   Last Updated: May 09, 2009

We all know that currently times are tough and we are all watching our spending. But this doesn't mean we have to give up our leisure entertainment activities like reading. If you are a bibliophile like me, you probably spend hundreds of dollars on books a year without even thinking about it, but right now we just don't have that kind of money to spend on reading. It just means we have to be more creative on how we spend our money so we can get more reading for the money.

There are several ways you can save money on reading: you can go to the public library or you can trade books at used book stores. I have found problems with both of these avenues. Libraries only carry the most popular books. My home town library did not carry science fiction/fantasy, which is mainly what I read and plus you have to return the books by a certain date. I paid a lot of library fines. Used Books Stores essentially have the same problem a lot of times fantasy readers keep their books, plus you lose a lot of the value of the book by trading at the Used Book Store.

The best way I have found to stretch my reading dollars is to participate in book swapping online sites.. A book trading site/book swapping site is a site where you can list books you don't want to keep and trade it for a book listed by another member of the site. Sites handle these trades in various ways. Some give you points. You get a point when you send a book and then you used that point to get a book of your choice that is listed on the site. Some do equal trades where someone sends you a book you want the same time you send the book you don't want. Either way, you can receive new-to-you books for the price of postage.

Below are the swap sites I have found. They all have their plus and minuses. I would recommend for maximum book trading that you sign up for all of them.

Paperbackswap

Paperbackswap is my favorite swap site. It has the easiest to use site and it has the most books available. You can swap paperbacks, hardbacks and audio books on this site. The site uses a point system. You list the books you want to trade. When someone requests a book you have you mail it to them (you pay postage) and then when they receive the book you get a point. You can then use that point to request a book you would like to have. Its a very nice system. This site also has a very nice wish list system. So if there is a book you would like to have that is not available then you can add it to your wish list. The site keeps track of who

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